Navy's top enlisted leader wraps up controversial job title review

A week after announcing his retirement, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (AW/NAC) Mike Stevens hit the road again.

He says it's not his last ride as MCPON — not even close.

"It’s important to start well, but it’s also important to finish strong,” Stevens said. “So whether I’ve got four years or five months left in the Navy, I owe our sailors and our Navy my very best, so I'm not going to slow down — I’m going to keep pushing right to the very end because they deserve that."

Stevens spoke to Navy Times on March 25 from the road between Jacksonville, Florida, and Cape Canaveral, where he was visiting the Naval Ordnance Test Unit.

It’s all part of what he’s calling his East Coast fleet engagement swing of 16commands spread over 11 days and more than 2,000 miles, from Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, Virginia, to Naval Air Station Key West, Florida.

He aims to meet with thousands of rank-and-file sailors and hundreds of enlisted leaders.

One topic that's come up: the review he's leading that could strip the word "man" from rating titles, like corpsman, one of the 21 titles under scrutiny. This highly controversial topic came up at Camp Lejuene and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.
"They wanted to know how we were approaching it,” he said. “I told them that I asked [the chief of naval operations] for the opportunity to lead this working group because I believe leaders don’t run away from challenges.”

“I tell them that what this boils down to is aligning their job titles with the work that they do — align it with industry while preserving as much history and tradition as possible,” he said. “And oh, by the way, we’ll look for the opportunity to replace the word 'man' with something else where it makes sense.”

Many ratings titles have come and gone since the Navy's founding in 1775 and even since World War II, as technology has changed sailors jobs.

“Once they have some context and something to compare it to, they realize that maybe it’s not something they need to get too worked up about,” Stevens said.

Stevens says the review is nearly over and that he plans to brief it to the Vice Adm. Bill Moran, the chief of naval personnel, in coming days. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus ordered the review in January, which could dump age-old titles like seaman, fireman and hospital corpsman.

The fireworks from the gender-neutral review aside, Stevens said he's hearing less complaints lately about family problems and pay that have often led the list of sailor gripes.

That's not to say they don't have anxieties about their benefits, such as the new retirement plan. MCPON said they want information about whether they should opt into the new plan.

"I share with them that’s written in the law that we are supposed to put together comprehensive training for all service members to help them make the right decisions for themselves and their families,” he said.

Stevens said the only way to measure sailors' feeling on the deckplates is to get out and visit them.

"When I was Adm. [John C.] Harvey’s fleet master chief, he used to always say that the only way to really and truly build trust with your people is to have face to face contact — to look them in the eye and have a conversation with them," Stevens said.
MAJ Ken Landgren SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" PO1 William "Chip" Nagel CPT (Join to see) LTC Stephen F. SSG Warren Swan PO2 Ed C. SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT SSgt (Join to see) CPT L SSP5 Michael Rathbun CW5 (Join to see) CW5 Charlie Poulton SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas SGM Mikel Dawson CSM Charles HaydenSN Greg Wright SGT Benjamin Lindsey MSG Tom Earley [~786700:SGT John McConnell